Re: Dingbats

[dennis collins <dcollins@xxxxxxx>]

Eric Angelini écrit:
> Je cherche qui a crée ce mot quand et avec quel sens à l'origine
> merci !

D'après le Oxford English Dictionary, c'est un mot d'argot qui date du XIXe 
siècle, avec les signications les plus variées. (Mais il n'est pas question 
dans l'article de son sens actuel.)

dingbat ("dINb&t). slang. Also ding bat, ding-bat.
[? f. ding v.1 + bat n.2]
1. U.S. In various uses (see quots.); esp.
(a) a piece of money; pl. money;
(b) = thingummy (cf. dingus);
(c) a tramp or hobo.
1838 in Amer. Speech (1963) XXXVIII. 10 We can take a ?Quaker? before we 
start?apply a ?Ding Bat? [some kind of drink?] at Providence.
1861 in Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4, 1877) 177 It has been found necessary 
to expend the dingbats, to put something more substantial on the ?fly? [= 
in motion].
1864 G. A. Sala in Daily Tel. 19 Oct., Little John, erst a hog-driver..and 
recently in trouble for manufacturing bogus ?dingbats?.
Ibid. 1 Nov., I paid for my Kissingen in five-cent ?dingbat? or 
?spondulick??two of the many names given to the fractional currency.
1877 Bartlett Dict. Amer. (ed. 4) 177 Dingbat, a bat of wood that may be 
thrown (dinged); a piece of money; a cannon-ball; a bullet.
1895 Dialect Notes I. 387 Dingbat. Mr. Philip Hale, of the Boston Journal, 
has been collecting information..concerning this word. The following 
definitions appear:?(1) Balls of dung on buttocks of sheep or cattle. (2) 
Blow or slap on the buttocks. (3) Flying missile. (4) Squabble of words or 
pushing. (5) Money. (6) In some of the N.E. schools, the word is student 
slang for various kinds of muffins or biscuit. (7) Affectionate embrace of 
mothers hugging and kissing their children. (8) Term of admiration. ?They 
are regular ding-bats? (speaking of girls).
1918 ?A No. 1? Mother Delcasse of Hoboes 44 Stew Bum..Ding Bat..Fuzzy 
Tail..the dregs of vagrantdom.
1923 Frontier May 10 That blasted ?ding bat? of a Ford, as Stub calls it, 
just naturally stood on its hind legs..and turned a flip-flop.
1926 J. Black You can?t Win vi. 65 If you was some kind of a rank dingbat 
you wouldn?t have been invited down here.
1931 J. Thurber Owl in Attic ii. 78 It is sitting on a strange and almost 
indescribable sort of iron dingbat.
1944 F. Brown Angels & Spaceships (1955) 208 It was his dingbat. I mean, he 
made it and he thought he knew what it was.
2. a. A foolish or stupid person; someone crazy or insane; also used as a 
general term of disparagement. Chiefly U.S.
[1911 Dialect Notes III. 542 Dingbatty, half crazy, imbecile. ?That fellow 
is dingbatty.?]
1915 Dialect Notes IV. 203 Dingbat, a fool. ?The boss called Ralph a 
dingbat because he made fun of him.?
1935 N. Ersine Underworld & Prison Slang 32 Dingbat, a screwy person; a 
stircrazy convict.
1950 H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 58/2 Dingbat, a fool; a 
worthless fellow.
1957 ?N. Culotta? They?re a Weird Mob (1958) ii. 29 ?Who is ut?? Some ding 
bat after that job... He sounds a bit crackers to me.
1971 Newsweek 29 Nov. 52 A rising tide of..weirdos, dumb Polacks, dingbats, 
meatheads, and four-eyes.
1978 J. Irving World according to Garp ii. 41 Midge was such a 
dingbat..that she went to Hawaii for a vacation during World War II.
1982 S. B. Flexner Listening to Amer. 282 By 1940 dingbat also meant a 
stupid person, especially a dumb girl or woman; this meaning was 
popularized in the 1970s TV situation comedy series All in the Family, 
whose lovable, bumbling, narrow-minded character Archie Bunker called his 
wife dingbat.
1985 N.Y. Times 13 Jan. ii. 3/2 Miss Sternhagen?s mother increases in 
giddiness, even to wearing what appears to be a feather in her hair. She 
is, in fact, a certifiable dingbat.
b. Austral. and N.Z. In pl., esp. in phr. to have the dingbats, to be 
dingbats, to be mad, stupid, eccentric; also, to be a victim of delirium 
tremens; to give (a person) the ding-bats, to inflict a feeling of nervous 
discomfort.
1918 Chrons. N.Z.E.F. 27 Sept. 109/2 ?Ave you got the dingbats?
1926 J. Devanny Butcher Shop x. 96 George, ?e ?ad the dingbats.
1933 L. G. D. Acland in Press (Christchurch) 14 Oct. 15/7 Dingbats. Slang, 
of Australian origin, for delirium tremens. The dingbats, I believe, are 
really the snakes, weasels, etc., which a sufferer sees.
1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 221/2 Dingbats, eccentric; mad, gen. slightly: 
Australian military.
1943 F. Sargeson in Penguin New Writing XVIII. 71, I knew it would give me 
the dingbats if I just stayed on there waiting.
1945 Southern Cross (London) 15 Dec. 4/3 Even old George, used as he was to 
pink snakes, ding-bats, and spotted elephants, seemed a little surprised.
1949 Landfall III. 146 Your mother?s dingbats.
1959 G. Slatter Gun in Hand iv. 42 Boozin? again! You?ll end up with the 
dingbats, you will.
3. Austral.
[Perh. f. ding(o + bat(man2.] An army batman.
1919 in Downing Digger Dial.
1940 Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Jan. 35/3 There is a vast difference between a 
dingbat in the British Army and one in the A.I.F.

Le Collins (l'autre) dit:

dingbat (ÈdINÇbæt) n.  U.S. slang.
1. any unnamed object, esp. one used as a missile.
2. a crazy or stupid person.

[C19: of unknown origin]
dingbats (ÈdINÇbæts) Austral. and N.Z. slang. pl. n.
1. the. delirium tremens.
2. give someone the dingbats. to make someone nervous.

? adj.
3. crazy or stupid.

Dennis Collins